Frontrunner Newt

On this day — Newt Gingrich as the new frontrunner; Romney’s $10,000 mistake; a look at the Gingrich appeal; and the rest of the day’s must reads are in ‘The Clips.’

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***Frontrunner Newt

Newt Gingrich’s dramatic rise to first place has, perhaps, for the first time, altered the dynamics of the race for the Republican nomination. When Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain soared to the top of the polls, Mitt Romney’s campaign was able to ignore them and wait for the seemingly inevitable flame out. With the Iowa caucuses just three weeks away, there simply isn’t enough time left on the play clock to hope that Newt Gingrich implodes/explodes, so the Romney campaign is battling back by repositioning its candidate as the underdog.

Asked if the former House speaker is the front-runner, Romney replied bluntly: “He is right now.”

Romney made it clear that he would rather lose than make incendiary charges about Gingrich that could help President Barack Obama in the general election. And the former Massachusetts governor said the nomination “is not going to be decided in just a couple of contests” and “could go for months and months.”

“You see how dramatically the numbers have moved and how quickly they have over the last year?” he replied Monday during a video interview at a grubby French-Canadian diner, Chez Vachon, a storied campaign stop that has hosted George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

The stakes were evident Monday as the two candidates campaigned here and engaged in their most intense skirmishes to date. Mr. Romney demanded that Mr. Gingrich return the $1.8 million in consulting fees he had received from Freddie Mac; Mr. Gingrich, a former House speaker, cast aside a vow not to attack his opponents and responded that Mr. Romney should “give back all the money he earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years at Bain.”

Until now, the two had circled each other warily and largely refrained from direct attacks, often using surrogates instead. But with both men on the ground here, they took to swatting at each other directly, highlighting just how important the New Hampshire primary may be in framing the fight for the Republican nomination.

A victory for Mr. Gingrich in the Jan. 10 primary here could be a serious setback for Mr. Romney, regardless of who wins the Iowa caucuses a week earlier.

In a suburban living room here a few days ago, amid platters of chicken salad tarts and red velvet cupcakes, Mrs. Romney brought a group of local women to tears describing how her husband has stood by her throughout her battle with multiple sclerosis, which once left her debilitatingly depressed and fatigued for months at a time.

“He is there, he is steadfast, you can count on him,” Mrs. Romney told the women. “He won’t abandon you in the hardest times.”

The message was not lost on the voters in the room.

“It says a lot about his character,” said Connie Schmett, who attended the event. “If he is not going to abandon his wife, he is not going to abandon his country.”

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***The $10,000 Mistake

Perhaps the most memorable line from last Saturday’s debate occurred when Mitt Romney bet Rick Perry $10,000 that Perry couldn’t prove his claim that Romney had changed his book to downplay his support of an individual health insurance mandate. The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza writes that the offer has blown up in the Romney campaign’s face:

Perry’s campaign put out a minute-long web video that repeatedly features Romney making the $10,000 bet comment while the words “one bet you can count on … the truth isn’t for sale” appear on screen.

Mary Matalin, an unaligned Republican strategist, said that while the $10,000 bet wasn’t an “implosion,” it did amount to “one more heavy brick in [Romney’s] political backpack”.

Matalin added that much of Romney’s strength in the race to date has been centered on his perceived superiority as a debater, making it easy for undecided Republicans to imagine him battling and beating President Obama on a debate stage. “The display of being bested by a candidate roundly dissed by the chattering classes cannot conjure up anything but scary images of Romney vs. Obama,” she noted.